Life Has No Blueprints: Draw Your Own (Part 2) Remodelers offer their solutions for the perpetual time crunch at work.

By Judith A. Stock Life is full of conflicting priorities, and one of the biggest is the issue of work-life. When work and life share equal billing on the priority scale, how do you effectively balance them? Here are a few approachable and realistic strategies from construction-industry veterans that will move you from where you are to where you want to be: Change the routine, says Paul Winans, president of Winans Construction in Oakland, Calif. He admits an uphill struggle with a life out of balance before he finally put himself in the driver's seat by not allowing his clients to run his business. In the contracting/remodeling business for 30 years, Winans says he has learned a thing or two about change and acknowledges the prospect that doing things differently can be scary. Here are some changes you can make right away: Instead of working 60 hour weeks, builders and remodelers should tell themselves, "My limit is 55 hours." It's not a big change but each incremental reduction in hours worked cements a more realistic work schedule. "When you're in enough pain, you will make the changes," Winans says. Winans also suggests joining a peer group of contractors where you can share information, get another viewpoint and interact with non-competitors in similar businesses. One of the most valuable results can be pressure from other members of the group to cut your hours on the job. In Remodeler's Advantage, for example, group members chide each other for working more than 50 hours a week. Don't expect to cover all the bases at work single-handedly; that's unrealistic at best. Alan Weiss, Ph.D and president of Summit Consulting Group Inc. in East Greenwich, R.I., says you must practice the skill of delegating everyday duties — a skill that is difficult for someone accustomed to doing everything himself. "You have to understand there are tasks that you can have someone else do that will decrease your time at work." Some business owners think they must work all the time in order to be successful. "Decide what is important, and be harsh in excluding those things that aren't," says D. Quinn Mills, author and professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Setting goals is a good way to remind yourself of priorities — and measuring how successful you are at getting them right. "If you don’t have any goals, that won't work," says Nina Winans, Paul's wife and partner in the family business. "A goal can be, 'I am going to be home for dinner three times this week.'" Without that goal, Nina Winans says, you'd probably work until 8:00 every evening. Setting priorities is a challenge for most business owners, but all businesses are not alike. Some require more time and attention than others. "Small businesses are very difficult, because they absorb as much time as you put into it," says Mills. People go into business for themselves because they think they can control their schedules if they are the boss. Usually though, that's not how things turn out. Instead the owner caters to the needs of customers and employees who end up controlling the boss's time.   1 | 2  NEXT